Lloyd Newell Narrations
Nest Family Entertainment Promo * "Nest Family Entertainment is the premier producer and distributor of inspiring family entertainment." * "We offer one of the world's finest collections of feature-quality animated and live action DVDs." * "Nest brings to life the most powerful stories from the Bible, and inspiring heroes from history." The Swan Princess (1994) Collector's Edition VHS Introduction * "Nest Entertainment is thrilled to bring you this collector's edition of The Swan Princess. Your continued support has made it possible to develop this spirit-building library: Stories from the New Testament, the Old Testament, and the wonderful historical examples of character ideals from our Animated Hero Classics. As you look for wholesome alternatives for family entertainment with a spiritual dimension, Nest Entertainment and our helpful sales distributors will always bring you the best." * "Please watch the end of this feature presentation for a special inside featurette on the making of The Swan Princess." The Making of 'The Swan Princess' (1995 Documentary) * "The birth of this exciting motion picture actually had its beginning in 1985, when Rick Rich left the Walt Disney Company to work with Jared Brown and Selden O. Young, producing Animated Stories from the New Testament." * "Over the years, many stories were considered and researched such as the story of Rabbit Hill, a fantasy story about boy pirates, and The First Dog. Finally, Rick and scriptwriter Brian Nissen began working on the German folk story, Swan Lake." * "After many drafts, the script was given to Jared Brown, the executive producer for the Bible and hero stories." * "Artists were hired and the expanding studio began to flourish on the two million dollars that were initially committed. The show began in 1992; by the time the film was finished and released in November 1994, over 45 million dollars were raised through the unending effort of Selden O. Young, who became the film's executive producer." * "In animation, unlike shooting a live action film where post-editing can make or break a film, everything must be planned to near perfection because of the astronomical cost of every second of animation. The story is everything." * "The story continuously evolves from concept to script to the development of the characters, which are actually sculpted into lifelike models for the artists to study. Voices are recorded, and then the animators go to work making the characters as real as possible. The storyboard is constantly updated...then rough animated pencil sketches begin. These are refined in a process called clean-up. Then the real magic of animation comes to life, when the full color backgrounds and painted cels are finally added." * "The design and the sound of the Great Animal were another difficult balancing act to get right." * "On the foley stage, the sound of the flapping wings was created by opening and closing an umbrella. Wooden sticks were broken when the Great Animal breaks the tree limb and attacks Derek. With the musical score and electronic alterations added, this scene becomes unbelievably real." * "Every great animated film has some special effects that set it apart from every other film. The Swan Princess had many of these breathtaking moments." * "Probably the most stunning is the scene coming to the water and castle. The idea was borrowed from the film trailer that was shown in theaters one year before the film was released. This awesome special effect was created by a combination of painted backgrounds and computer graphics." * "One of the problems of the story that was quickly discovered was that many of the scenes are staged at night, because that is when we see Odette in her human form. The show had to have light added or the feel of the picture would have been too dark. The process of painting backgrounds for the animation was changed to put more light around the characters, and fading darker off-center screen." * "The character of Rothbart, played by one of the best-known motion picture bad guys Jack Palance, was not only really nasty, but the evil was without any comic relief. Originally, Jack's voice was recorded for the song of the castle sieging...but the feeling was too evil and dark, and needed to be lifted and lightened. Composer Lex de Azevedo and lyricist David Zippel had the idea for the song No More, Mr. Nice Guy. After looking everywhere for the right performer, producers Rick Rich and Jared Brown agreed that Lex should sing his own song." * "The mood was lifted, humor was added, and the song gave a wonderful opportunity to use fun visuals of Rothbart's bad guy antics that were transported from night by his magic to broad daylight. It worked with the character perfectly." * "While the characters were artistically being developed, choosing the voices became an obsession. After searching through lists of hundreds of known actors and actresses, auditioning began to find the perfect matches between the designed characters and voices." * "Getting a total match with voice and character action is what brings the animation from a two-dimensional flat medium into something that seems even more real than a live action film." * "The internationally known voices that were selected for the main characters are John Cleese, who plays Jean-Bob the French frog...Steven Wright, the slow-talking turtle Speed...Sandy Duncan for Queen Uberta...and Jack Palance as the evil Rothbart. Each of these incredibly talented people brought something beside what was scripted to give the film a perfect creative touch." * "When the voice of Sandy Duncan was recorded, she was especially attracted to the humor of the pushy queen mother Uberta, trying to get through the crowds at the ball." * "This line was an excellent example of John Cleese's wonderful sense of on-the-spot wit that was added." * "Steven Wright's deadpan humor stole the show with the slow-talking turtle Speed. His slow timing against the staccato-paced Jean-Bob made a perfect contrast for a self-confident, humorous, yet wise character." * "Most of the humor and gags were on a child's level...yet many appealed to adults. Then there was the scene of Rothbart doing a one-arm push-up that became Jack Palance's trademark from the Oscar Awards." * "But with the breaking news story of a disaster associated with the feature film The Program, where a teen copies a film stunt and then is killed, the scene of Derek and his sidekick Bromley was changed from this original footage to give Bromley a full suit of armor. This change was made so that no one would copy this trick, unless they also wore a full suit of armor." * "The Swan Princess is the last major animated film that has actual painted production cels. The word 'cel' is short for celluloid, which is a clear plastic sheet that the characters are painted on and subsequently placed on backgrounds and filmed one by one to give the illusion of movement. Animation art from past films and cartoons is in great demand, with collectors' interests making many of the production cels extremely valuable. The Swan Princess is the last of fewer than 40 films in all of animation history with actual hand-painted cels. To save time and money, animation color for feature movies is now computer generated, making hand-painted cels increasingly rare." * "Over 100,000 cels from The Swan Princess have been cataloged and authenticity-certified from each scene and frame as they appeared in the film. These limited production cels from The Swan Princess are now available through animation art dealers, or directly from Nest Entertainment." * "One of the most important areas of an animated film's success is product and video licensing. Co-executive producer Matt Mazer was integral in the extensive licensing of the characters and other facets from the film, as well as setting up focus testing with audiences across the country for helpful market research." * "The foreign release of The Swan Princess with distribution partners such as Sony and Dentsu began in Japan with an innovative campaign featuring Japan's most popular music group, Dreams Come True. Ticket sellouts in Tokyo theaters were common as excited fans purchased tickets in advance to see the music video Eternity, which was released with The Swan Princess. The entire music video can be seen at the end of this segment." * "The hundreds of wonderful reviews that The Swan Princess received reflect the level of vision and commitment of the entire team." Category:Narrations